Artur Daveglis, who turned 31 the day before Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, has been in Russian captivity since 5 September 2022. Although seized and savagely tortured because of his resistance to Russia’s armed invasion of his country, Russia then fabricated ‘spying’ charges and a 10-year sentence.
Russia standardly uses ‘spying’ charges against Ukrainians it has held incommunicado for months, or years, with all such ‘trials’ held behind closed doors. Despite such enforced secrecy, the authoritative Memorial Support for Political Prisoners Project found grounds enough to place Artur Daveglis on its list of people whose prosecution was probably politically motivated.
The Media Initiative for Human Rights [MIHR] has now learned more about Artur’s abduction from his mother, Olha. She explains that her son set off for the Kherson recruitment office on 24 February 2022, the day Russian launched its full-scale invasion. He phoned her at around midday to say that they had been issued with weapons and were heading off to the suburbs of Kherson, seemingly to try to stop the Russians’ advance via the vital Antonivsky Bridge.
All contact was then lost with Artur until he phoned against the following day, this time from hospital. He and other defenders had come under a direct missile attack which killed some of the men and left Artur and others gravely wounded. He asked his mother to help get bandages; antiseptic; medicines; as well as anyone willing to give blood.
Olha circulated his appeal, with the response overwhelming. Huge numbers of Kherson residents came forward to give blood, bringing all the needed medical supplies, as well as clothes, blankets, etc. .
After the Russians seized Kherson, local residents also helped to hide the wounded defenders in their own homes. As well as Artur himself, Olha gave a hiding place to a soldier whom her son had saved near the Antonivsky Bridge.
As soon as Daveglis felt a bit better, he began actively helping to get food and water to the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ positions. Olha explains that he subsequently decided that he could be of greater help if he could provide “eyes and ears” on territory occupied by the Russians. He gathered information at night, although she does not know whom he passed this on to.
Russia’s swift advance through parts of Kherson oblast and occupation of Kherson for many months meant that military recruitment was chaotic, with Daveglis never receiving confirmation of military status. It is, however, evident that he was acting in defence of his country.
Armed and masked FSB burst into Olha’s home during the early hours of 5 September 2022. They put a bag over Olha’s head, handcuffed her and took her to the house where her son was living. They took the bag off her head, and pointed a gun at her head, threatening to kill her if he didn’t surrender.
Artur surrendered, with the Russians forcing him to the ground and beating him. Olha was taken into his flat and forced to open all the cupboards, etc, so that, as they told her, if there were booby-traps, then it would be she who was killed. She recalls that over the hour, approximately, that all of this took, she could hear the Russians savagely torturing her son. She herself was hit with the rifle butt a few times.
The Russians took Artur away, with the family’s torment of not knowing whether he was safe and where he was being held, lasting several weeks. Olha then learned hat he was being heard at one of the most notorious places used by the invaders for torturing prisoners while Kherson was under occupation. She tried to take her son food and warm things, but all of this was rejected, with Olha told that her son was not allowed this because he was “behaving badly” and that he would have to lie on the cold floor.
Artur was held incommunicado, very likely with no formal status or charges, for seven months. On 4 April 2023, Olha learned, via the same lawyer, that Artur was imprisoned in Rostov-on-Don (Russia) and that his ‘trial’ was due to begin in a week. It ended almost a year later, on 13 March 2024, with Daveglis sentenced by the Rostov regional court to 10 years of ‘spying’ charges, under Article 276 of Russia’s criminal code.
All such prosecutions, under Russian legislation, of Ukrainian citizens illegally abducted from Ukrainian territory and taken to Russia, are an egregious violation of international law. For this reason alone, Artur Daveglis should be released immediately. There are others also. The ‘judge’ in Daveglis’ ‘trial’, as in countless others, based the verdict on ‘testimony’ which had been extracted through torture as well as that of so-called ‘witnesses’ who were not questioned in court. Daveglis was claimed to have “passed on information with the purpose of destroying Russian Federation soldiers and technology”.
It is very much to be hoped that Artur Daveglis, a Ukrainian citizen living in his own Ukrainian home, did just that, with such activities in no way constituting ‘spying’.
Please write to Artur!
The letters tell him that he is not forgotten and show Moscow that their actions are being watched. Letters need to be in Russian, handwritten and on ‘innocuous’ subjects. If it is not possible to write in Russian, you could send a photo or picture with the following lines.
Привет,
Желаю Вам крепкого здоровья и надеюсь, Вы скоро вернетесь домой, к своим родным. Простите, что мало пишу – мне трудно писать по-русски, но мы все о Вас помним.
[Hi. I wish you good health and hope that you will soon be home, with your family. I’m sorry that this letter is short – it’s hard for me to write in Russian., but you are not forgotten. ]
Address
346880, Ростовская область, г. Батайск, ул. М. Горького, д. 356, ФКУ ИК-15 ГУФСИН России по Ростовской области,
Давеглису Артуру Сергеевичу, 1991 г. р.
